Sony Pictures Shifts Expansion Plans

Sony Pictures Studios will probably take over the Filmland Corporate Center building in Culver City, a move that would allow for a significant down-scaling of proposed expansion on its adjacent studio lot.

To study the impact of the takeover, Culver City officials postponed a Jan. 27 Planning Commission public hearing on the project. A new hearing date has not been determined.

One option to be explored is closing Madison Avenue to through traffic. The street runs between the building and the studio lot.

Sony occupies about one-third of the eight-story Filmland building. Its holdings will increase after MGM, which also leases office space in the building, moves to Santa Monica in the spring. Sony’s 20-year lease includes an option to buy the building, Sony spokeswoman Barbara Cline said.

The additional office space would reduce the amount of new buildings needed on the studio lot by 250,000 square feet, according to a memo from Sony. The 13-year expansion plan calls for increasing the studio’s 1.5 million square feet of office, production and retail space to 2.6 million square feet.

Turning Madison Avenue into a cul-de-sac would protect the steady stream of pedestrians between the lot and the building, and reduce traffic on neighborhood streets, the memo said.